"Alors, tu es d'accord avec l'auteur ou pas?" a voice asked.
Camille blinked. She was no longer in her room. She was sitting at a tiny, round metal table on the terrace of a bustling café in Lyon.
"Excellent!" the man beamed, clapping his hands. "Now, argue the counter-point using the vocabulary from the debate section!" Alter Ego 4. Livre d'eleve
Camille looked up. Sitting across from her was a young man with a messenger bag and a sharp, inquisitive look. He looked exactly like one of the stock photo models from the textbook's listening exercises. In his hand, he held a cup of espresso. "Pardon?" Camille stammered, her heart racing.
She looked down at her desk. The Alter Ego 4 book was still open to the very first dossier. But it didn't look intimidating anymore. It looked like a map. Camille smiled, picked up her highlighter, and began to read, finally ready to conquer the language. "Alors, tu es d'accord avec l'auteur ou pas
"Listen," Camille said, stumbling. "I think... je pense que... wait, à mon avis ... the companies must make more efforts."
Camille took a deep breath. She closed her eyes for a second, visualizing the textbook page. She remembered the grammar box. "D'accord," she said, squaring her shoulders. "À mon avis, il est primordial que les grandes entreprises fassent plus d'efforts pour protéger la planète, bien que ce soit difficile." She was sitting at a tiny, round metal
Camille panicked. This was a classic B2 production orale task. Her brain scrambled to find the right vocabulary. Connecteurs logiques. Subjonctif. Expressing nuance. She had studied them, but using them in a real conversation was terrifying.